them had included her being a widow. Then again, what she just said makes sense. I couldn’t imagine any man willingly leaving this beautiful woman, not her and not a kid. As her shoulders shudder, I kiss the top of her head, tasting the hair spray and shampoo. “I’m sorry. Thank you for telling me.”
I pull her tighter as her pain—her loss—emanates from her every pore. It’s a dense cloud surrounding us. It’s not pretty. But life isn’t always pretty. This is the truth I want to share, the reality I want to navigate beside her, if she’ll allow me.
After another long pause, she speaks again, “You’re the first...the only...other than him. I know we started this sex thing fast, but I hadn’t...not in five years.”
I run my hand over her hair, smoothing the waves and wanting her to know how much I care for her. Hell, it’s more than care. Over the past three months I’ve fallen in love with her. I hug her tighter. “So the birth control?”
“I never needed it.”
“I never thought you slept around.”
She lifts her tearstained cheeks. “Really? We did it in the front seat of my car on our second date.”
My grin broadens. “We did and in my apartment the first night we met. I'll never forget either time. You were fantastic. I love it when you ride my cock.”
“You do?”
The way she asks brings my body back to life one more time. “I do. I love the way your tits bounce in my face and the way your knees squeeze my hips.”
Mandy shakes her head as she pushes herself up. “You know I’m tired, right?”
“I know you love to ride my cock as much as I love having you do it.”
“Fuck,” she mumbles as she moves and straddles my hips.
“No, beautiful. You’re supposed to save the cussing for when you come apart.”
“Because you’re confident enough to think you can make me do that for a third time tonight?”
I reach down and position my now-hard-again dick at her pussy. Before entering, I say, “No, not confident—cocky enough.”
“Yes, Mr. Peppernick, you are cock—”
My dick interrupts her smart remark as it slides into its favorite place on earth.
"Oh fuck!" she gasps as her neck stretches and her tits fill my vision.
With her hands on my shoulders and tits in my face, Mandy moves up and down, slow at first, adjusting and accommodating. Her pussy is like a glove—two sizes too small—that fits perfectly around me. It may seem like the timing sucks, but in reality, it feels like part of the process, her process. Her moving through the cloud of hurt and sorrow, maybe for once accepting that she doesn’t have to do it alone.
There’s something about this time, slow, with her in total control, that seems to satisfy her in a way words can’t. I want Mandy to know she’s safe with me, her stories and her heart. We can take it slow or fast, whatever she wants.
When we finally settle again, I kiss her hair. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t think sorry is what you meant. You meant, damn, Mandy, that was great.”
I scoff. “Yes, it was. I’m sorry about your son’s dad.”
“My husband...” she clarifies before going on. “We were married for only two years, but we were together forever. He was my brother’s best friend. From the time we were all little kids, he was always around...”
In my darkened bedroom, we lie awake for hours as she talks. For three months I couldn’t get her to tell me anything, and in one night I’m hearing it all. Her life, words, and emotions are fully on display. In many ways, she’s more exposed than she was that first night. Story after story comes forth, one ending as another begins. With each one, Mandy lets me into her life and her heart; though her son is mentioned, it’s her husband’s name I learn. Through it all I hear how much she loved Jackson, how they loved one another. Theirs was something special. It was that once-in-a-lifetime attraction that’s meant to be forever. My heart breaks as she recalls him leaving after their son’s birth, his promise to return, and the fateful knock on her door. While it hurts to hear her pain, I like that she doesn’t hold back.
My chest stays perpetually damp with her tears.
When she finally stops talking, her breathing stills, and I can tell she’s fallen asleep.
I don’t care that she wants to go home. I’m not letting her go tonight. I never